nurmberg

nurmberg S-Trains Presents ....

The Model Railway on exhibition in the Nuremberg Toy Museum, KarlstraBe 13, at the 2nd floor, is of special interest at the moment. The lay-out measures about 325 sq.ft. and the whole construction is hand-made. It was built between 1950 and 1974 in Nuremberg by Dr. Wolfram Bismarck in his spare time. The scale of the lay-out is 1:64 (gauge S = 3/16") i. e. half the size of gauge no. 1. The main components are hardboard and plywood of various widths. Altogether the lay-out consists of 565 ft. of tracks. Strips of wood were planed, coloured and cut up into 12,500 sleepers. Steel of 0. 1 " was used for the rails themselves. The last section is made of argentan. A special characteristic of this model railway is that the stations themselves, their outbuildings, the tracks, and the points, as well as all the rolling stock are handmade.
For his own interest the designer chose an American railway lay-out as a prototype. He did so because the American railway system displays features and technical idiosyncrasies of special interest. This model shows the Omaha/Nebraska junction on the west bank of the Missouri River. This has the advantage of beeing able to simulate the railway traffic between several stations from one electric control panel. The rolling stock and railway traffic flow on the model resembletheera between 1940and 1965. On the other side of the river opposite the town of Omaha lies Council Bluffs. The bed of the river forms the border between the states of Nebraska and Iowa.

Ten different railway companies converge on the junction of Council Bluffs. Here all the railway traffic passes into the hands of the Union Pacific Railway and proceeds to Omaha to be classified and re-dispatched. The lines which leave the two main stations fuse into a main line on a lower level of the lay-out. Several hidden sidings have been built into this part of the circuit. To these sidings rolling stock is admitted, stored, and released. From there it heads for one of the main-line destinations. This ingeniously conceals the missing stretches of tracks beneath the lay-out. So the trains, as they embark on the imaginary stretch of line between Council Bluffs and Omaha, simply disappear out of sight.

Council Bluffs goods station
Omaha is both a passenger and a goods station. The passenger station is joined to two electric circuits. The station has three through tracks, eachwith itsown platform. The motor rail coach repair-shed and goods-depot are linked tothe outercircuitsto the left and rightoftheomaha Union Station building. The old engine-shed in the motorcoach repair yard, the goods-shed and all the other build- ings correspond to the prototype. The large Omaha Union Station building required eight months of work. Half of this time was used to recreate the interior (see the original photos of the interior). In some parts of the building seven layers of plywood had to be laid one on top of the other in order to reproduce the appropriate relief of the building. By means of carving and burning intheart Decoarchitectureof the main building and its two wings has been reproduced. The heating-plant joins the main station building from the direction of the rail-coach repair shed, behind which there is a shed for luggage waggons. Next comes a section of the city park of Omaha with a memorial to the last Omaha Indian of the Sioux tribe. General View

In order to show the Omaha goods shed in its proper light the loading area in front of it is shown to be still under construction. Of particular interest here, as on the layout as a whole, are the hand carved figures. Including the model passengers in the local and inter-city trains, these total more than 300. A look through the doors at the loading ramp of the goods-shed into the illuminated interior shows the complete lay-out; just as a look through the front windows revealsthegoods registration officewithfurniture, telephone, freight tarif tables, and staff at work. Opposite the goods shed, but still within the goods yard, the two main industries of Omaha are depicted: grain stozage and a meat packing business. The cattle in the stock cars are taken along the siding to the cattle corral. At the same time meat products leave the factory and are loaded into refrigerator cars. A covered grain waggon stands on the siding by the grain storage plant. This simulates an unloading system operated by compressed air. Omaha goods-station is joined to both of the main circuits. This means that trains can both enter and leave in either direction via the appropriate points. The problem of space has meant that the lay-out of the tracks in the goods- yard has had to be thoroughly simplified. Thus there is

CTC-control panel and eastern entry to Council Bluffs Station only one entrance and one exit line. This is sufficient to illustrate the flow of the goods traffic. When a goods train enters this area the engine can be electrically uncoupled from the train and taken into the loco storage tracks for refueling. At the same time the shunting engine can push the waggons over the hump of the double-incline. On this simplified lay-out the waggons are sent into sidings heading for four different directions:

1) Chicago
2) North-West Line via Montana, Idaho to Tacoma and
    Seattle in the State of Washington
3) the historic Western line of the first trans-continental
    railway via Cheyenne, Salt Lake City, Reno, Sacramento
    to San Francisco
4) everything, that has to go via Kansas City and St. Louis
    either to the east in the direction of New York and the whole
    Atlantic Coast, or to the south in the direction
    of Oklahoma - New Orleans.